Disposable absorbent adhesive sink liner for use with the bathroom sink, kitchen sink and
associated method

ABSTRACT

A thin lightweight absorbent, adjustable, disposable, protective sink liner for use with the bathroom sink, kitchen sink, and associated method, a apparatus that is flexible, lightweight, non-woven, universal, conforming, fibrous, non-porous and compressed having a drain hole, flap, accordion folds and scored lines to transform the apparatus from a flat one dimensional object into a three dimensional funnel shaped object infused with aroma fragrances, and imprinted on its surface with colorful, and beautifully designed adhesive appliques, to all makeup the embodiment of a sink liner that is invented as a sink barrier; to catch dirt, dust, personal hygiene, and daily grooming debris that fall into the sink as a result of performing personal hygiene and beauty grooming activities over the sink.

FIELD OF INVENTION

This invention relate to the household cleaning and beauty industry. More specifically and directly to the disposable liner that aid in the cleaning maintenance and protection of the bathroom sink.

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION

This invention is a sink liner. Over time, in history, the sink has become a more increasingly fashionable commodity within the home. With the design evolution of the sink, the bathroom sink has been elevated to a place of great importance within the home, both in decor and function.

The sink that was once a simple vessel with unchallenged aesthetics, used for hand-washing before meals, and cleaning after meals, has now become the hot spot in the home for personal self improvement and the show off of home decor, style and fashion. Leaving the sink with a need for daily protection.

The average consumer, the modern day family, wake every day to perform beauty grooming, and human maintenance activities over the sink that result in the dropping of debris into the sink. For example, the consumer arise each morning groom themselves, and in many cases, the same sink, the same day, is used by other members of the household who must perform the same grooming task, all of which, result in the build-up of debris. With little time left after the grooming to clean the sink, the consumer rush off to a busy day. Only to return to the home to see a dirty, debris cluttered sink, wishing they could push the cleaning maintenance of that sink to a later day and time.

As a result of consumer increase in the beauty industry, the self-improvement trend is placing a greater demand on the use of the sink. Teens use the sink more now than ever before. Both boys and girls each have a variety of grooming activities that they perform over the sink, men have increased their use with the abundance of shaving apparatus, gadgets and options that are now on the market. The vanity that was once used as a stand alone dressing table from the early part of the century, has now been replaced with the bathroom sink. Women have a dual focus, how to keep their face attractive and the sink pretty. This all leaving the person responsible for cleaning the sink with the major challenge of keeping the sink fresh, pretty, and instantly clean with low maintenance. This invention has been created to address this major challenge. Providing the sink with protection from human debris, and dust, with instant clean-up, fresh smell and pleasing appearance.

The invention is a sink liner, intended for use with the bathroom sink but could find use in other types of sinks. Sink liners have been presented to the U.S. Patent office in the past, which I discovered after my invention was fully materialized. However, through the patent research process, I came across U.S. Pat. No. 3,931,651 which uses a plastic sink liner for the bathtub, the liner is secured to the tub with a framed structure. Next there was U.S. Pat. No. 5,465,436, a disposable plastic sheet liner for use in the medical field. Again, the liner is secured around the tub rim with hardware. Following, U.S. Pat. No. 5,815,856 is a sink liner that is formed but, with individual extending side members that are held together with hook and loop fasteners. And finally, U.S. Pat. No. 6,338,171 is a sink liner that is also comprised of various panels that are also held together with hook and loop members.

The fore mentioned inventions were created with good intentions to solve problems that exist, however, they are complicated to use and do not solve the problem that the average consumer, general public, face on a daily bases with the bathroom sink when performing personal hygiene grooming over the sink. This present invention is intended for the average consumer, and is easy to use. Unlike the fore mentioned inventions, this invention is disposable, light-weight, universal, conforming, non-woven, absorbent fibrous, nonporous, easy to use, eye pleasing, pleasant smelling, molded paper compressed into a desired shape with a sticky surface, invented as a sink barrier; to catch dust, personal hygiene, and grooming debris that fall into a sink as a result of performing personal hygiene grooming activities over the sink. There is a need to have a sink liner that will catch beauty and hygiene grooming debris, provide quick clean-up and compliment the beauty of home decor.

Because the beauty industry continue to market beauty products that require application over the sink, and the interior design industry continue to create sink designs that make the bathroom a more attractive place within the home, the demand for the homeowner to protect their investment is a high priority.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention is a sink liner, a temporary, universal, re-positional, disposable, adhesive, absorbent, non-woven, lightweight conforming fibrous panel that lays down into the cavity of the sink.

The purpose of the sink liner is to perform as a barrier on the inward walls of the sink to protect the cavity of the sink from direct contact of dust and debris droppings that fall into the sink while the consumer is performing beauty, grooming and daily hygiene maintenance over the sink in the normal course of the day. Debris dropping that fall into the sink, which over time can cause messy build-up, unpleasant odors, and time consuming cleaning maintenance.

The average consumer conducts beauty grooming and daily hygiene maintenance over the sink like combing and brushing hair, washing their body parts, brushing and cleaning teeth, washing throat and gargling, applying cosmetic make-up, shaving facial hair, under arms and legs, styling and cutting hair, wigs and weaves. The sink liner is invented to catch the debris dropping from those activities that fall into the sink while the consumer is performing the personal grooming task and human maintenance over the sink.

The sink liner performs as a barrier to protect the sink from the debris droppings of body shampoo and washes, spit, nose snot, saliva, and mucus, bloody mucus that result from brushing teeth, residue from gargling and cleaning teeth, gargling and rinsing gums and throat, flossing residue, flossing strings cosmetic droppings from eyeliners, eyedrops, eye-solutions, eyeshadows, eyelash glues, liquid facial foundations, powders, lipstick, lipgloss, lip coloring, facial hair shaving, shaving creams, bang and hair trimmings, hair plucking, nose hair clippings, hair droppings solutions, as well as, debris droppings into the sink form hair gels, liquid sprays, moisturizers, lotions, and creams, facial mask, facial peelings, blushes, glitters, and waxing that is applied to the human face over the sink.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING

The included drawings are illustrated to show the various features of the sink liner, necessary to understand the invention and represent the claims of the sink liner. The drawings start with the one dimensional flat pattern of the sink liner, than move toward the three dimensional form of the sink liner in its active position. In some of the illustrations the inter-fold lines, and adhesive spots have been left off of the drawing to help the viewer better focus on the area of the invention that is being presented, without confusion. Finally, the drawings are set fourth with further objects and advantages to best represent and understand the drawings and intent of the invention.

FIG. 1 One dimensional aerial view of the sink liner in its flat position.

FIG. 2 Three dimensional aerial view of the sink liner transformed into the funnel shape positioned slightly above the sink

FIG. 3 A greatly enlarged fragmentary of the sink liner hole section around the sink drain.

FIG. 4 Aerial view of the sink liner positioned in the sink.

FIG. 5 An abstract view showing the partial back and front of the sink liner

FIG. 6 Front view of the sink liner showing removal of the protective release paper.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention will now be described more fully in the proceeding paragraphs with reference to accompanying drawings showing the invention details and the distinguish aspects that defined this invention. This invention may however be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiment set fourth here in. Rather this embodiment is provided so that this application will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the true scope of the invention so those those skilled in the art could make and use the invention without extensive experimentation. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout the figures. As used herein, the term sink liner refers to a flexible thin sheet of non-woven absorbent fibrous paper that functions in the sink as a protective barrier, to the cavity of the sink, against human grooming debris and dust particles that float in the atmosphere.

The sink liner is a single panel with funnel characteristic, inter-folded, non-woven paper liner with the approximate thickness of a single sheet of paper, with mechanical treatment to both sides, having nine major attributes that aid the sink liner in carrying out its intended purpose to be a protective barrier to the sinks wall by catching falling human grooming debris and dust.

The body, shape, handles, hole, fold-line, adhesive, accordion section, scent, and protective release paper make up the characteristics of this invention. The detail of each attribute is the following:

Body: the sink liner a 2-ply non-woven paper is comprised of many ingredients that come together to form the embodiment of the sink liner. The body is made from recycled non-woven cellulose and electrostatic fibers that contain chlorine, dyes, pigments, softening additives, pressure sensitive adhesives agents, and super absorbent polymers that is impregnated with fragrance to form a lightweight liner that is protected with a release paper 21, that has a P.E. film surface 22 on its back side as seen in FIG. 6.

Shape: the body of the non-woven paper is shaped and formed to fit into the sink cavity. The shape 12 is invented as a single one dimensional panel as seen in FIG. 1 that conforms to a three dimensional shape as seen in FIG. 2 to fit neatly into the cavity of a sink as seen in FIG. 4.

Handles: located on the top edge of the sink liner 13, as shown in FIG. 4, help the liner to fit around the sink hardware allowing easy access to operate the sink. The sink liner handles are precisely die cut and equal in length and width to be used with the sinks hardware as seen in FIG. 4 or with a sink that has no hardware attachment as seen in FIG. 2.

Accordion Section: this area of the sink liner, 16 supports the hole section 23, the folding creased section allows the sink liner to conform to a shape that adjust to the wall of the sink's cavity and transforming the one dimensional form of the sink liner as seen in FIG. 1 to a three dimensional object, with funnel characteristic as seen in FIG. 2.

Hole: located near the center of the sink liner 15 accommodates the sink drain as shown in FIG. 3, and the flow of water from the facet as seen in FIG. 4 is a die cut circle that fits around the drain hole of the sink. The hole allows water to flow out the drain of the sink while performing personal hygiene and beauty grooming over the sink. The hole works with the sink stopper as seen in FIG. 7 to retain water in the sink for grooming that may require a sink full of water. The wall section 23 around the hole section is slightly thicker than the rest of the panel to help hold the sink liner in place.

Fold-line: the sink liner has a fold-line 14 along the top half of the structure as seen in FIG. 1. The fold-line is the result of a thin precise mechanical scoring 18 that is applied to the back side of the sink liner 20 as seen in FIG. 5. The fold-line allows the sink liner to form a flap that folds down as seen in FIG. 2, and lays on top of the sink's rim as seen in FIG. 4. The fold-line flap area is design to lay down the side of an above the vanity style sink, or on the rim of a mounted vanity sink, supporting the stability of the sink liner as well as catching debris that may fall slightly outside, or within close range of the sink cavity.

Adhesive: the sink liner has a sticky adhesive 17, applied to the front side of the liner 19 as illustrated in FIG. 1. and FIG. 5. The adhesive 17 is strategically placed on the liner to provide the greatest opportunity to catch dust and the falling debris. The adhesive is colorful, and shaped in a way to add beauty, harmony and attractive aesthetics to the sink liner as seen in FIG. 4. The sink liner provides protection from dust and debris without the added feature of the sticky adhesive. Therefore the sink liner is being invented with and with out the sticky adhesive.

Scent: the sink liner has a pleasant smell. The sink liner has an aroma scent infused into the fibers of the body 12. The scent is pleasant, with aromas that smell like candy, food, fruit, flowers, and nature. The scent is refreshing, providing a lingering aroma to the room when the liner is in place in the cavity of the sink as seen in FIG. 4. The scent is an added feature to the sink liner. The sink liner can still perform its mission of helping to keep the sink fresh and clean with or without the scent. Therefore the invention of the sink liner is presented with and without the added feature of the scent.

Protective Release Paper: Finally, a re-positional paper 21 as seen in FIG. 6, with special coating on it's backside 22, that protects the sticky adhesive 17 on the front side of the sink liner 19 until the product is in use.

The above mentioned attributes all come together to define the make-up of the sink liner that is invented to provide to the consumer a more effective, economical and safe way to protect their sink investment while enjoying the various functions that the sink bring to their home and daily living. 

1. (canceled)
 2. (canceled)
 3. (canceled)
 4. (canceled)
 5. (canceled)
 6. (canceled)
 7. Quickly and instantly remove human debris droppings from the sink without the use of harsh and abrasive chemicals.
 8. Protect and preserve the beauty, freshness, and integrity of the sink by eliminating direct contact of human grooming debris droppings that fall into the sink.
 9. Reduce costly repairs that can result from human grooming debris build-up in the sink drain. 